Nippon Life Insurance Co. announced it has reached an agreement with Boston-based Putnam Investments for the two firms to unwind their money management affiliate cross shareholdings.
A Nippon Life news release Thursday said that as part of an initiative to strengthen the Nippon Life group asset management business, it will acquire the 10% stake Putnam holds in its Nissay Asset Management subsidiary while Putnam will acquire Nippon Life's 20% stake in Putnam's quantitative affiliate, PanAgora Asset Management.
A Nippon Life spokesman declined to provide financial details of the agreed transaction.
Jon Goldstein, a Boston-based spokesman for Putnam, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The business alliance between Nippon Life and Putnam stretches back to 1997.
The Nippon Life release said the company decided to convert Nissay Asset Management into a wholly owned subsidiary "in order to reinforce and expand the asset management business."
The spokesman couldn't immediately provide further details regarding how that move would facilitate the expansion of Nippon Life's asset management business. At the start of December, Nippon Life agreed to take a minority 25% stake in TCW Group. Earlier last year, Nippon Life boosted its stake in Reliance Nippon Asset Management.
